To all members of the Select Committee for Pension Policy.
Each one is addressed personally.
From the Campaign for Representation
for Britons Abroad.
I write to you each
individually. Each of you is motivated in
the cause of justice for the individual.
What civilised person would not be?
Yet today justice for the British Citizen living beyond the shores of Britain
is a fragile thing. You are concerned
for those who are pensioners, yet as far as I can perceive, your concerns in
this barely stretch beyond the shores of Britain. Yet 450,000 State pensioners live in the near
continent of Europe and over another 500,000 live
further away, with agglomerations chiefly in lands associated as the British
Commonwealth and the USA.
There are (February 2012 figures)
a grand total of 12,707,640 State Pensioners – of these 1,197,690 live abroad –
that is to say 9.42% of the total – nearly one in ten.
There are some astonishing
details lodged in the statistics.
During the last year:-
The total number increased by 134,530 -
an increase of 1.070%
The number resident in the UK
increased by 118,560 -up 1.041%
The number resident abroad rose by 15,970 up 1.351%
PROPORTIONATELY the numbers abroad are increasing faster than
those in the UK.
The rise has slackened since 2009, no
doubt because of the financial crisis and the rumoured difficulties of the
Euro, but it has not stopped!
The number relating to those
abroad, you will understand is not solely due
to an additional clutch of pensioners. The number includes the replacements
of those who have died and those who have returned to the UK
to end their days amongst their family at ‘home’.
The movement of pensioners since 1973 to Europe is shown in the following set of graphs.
Figures
gleaned from the series of Government Statistics on pensions–
[To
view earlier years change the 12 to 11,10,09 etc]
[Click on the image to enlarge and then 'esc' to return]
The percentage abroad has
increased year by year without relent from 8.22% in
2002 to 9.42% today.
Why should these figures be important to the members of the Select
Committee on Pensions Policy?
1. Are these not British Citizens
to be honoured and respected for the service they have given to the United
Kingdom?
2. Is it appropriate for the Select Committee to
appear to ignore nearly 10% of the elderly citizens of Britain? You may be surprised to learn that the
British pensioner abroad feels ignored and rejected by the British Government
but she and he most surely does.
The counter arguments.
Some in Parliament (I speak of
the 600 not just the committee) would argue that if the pensioner moves abroad
then he or she has moved out of the ambit of the British Government and
therefore is on his ‘tod’ and HMG has no
interest. That has been, has it not,
the attitude behind the saga of the Winter Fuel Payment? Has not that also been the feeling behind the
resistance to paying the DLA or Attendance Allowance? Some of you in Parliament have assumed that
the migrant pensioner must be better heeled than those at ‘home’. Some of you have considered that the migrant
pensioner is bathing in warm sunshine all the year round. (Yet winter
temperatures in much of Europe are colder than Cornwall
and certainly more cold than the Western Isles of Scotland where average
minimum temperatures in winter are above zero). We are reported as scroungers and parasites in
some press items.
Perhaps as a committee you might
consider the reasons why so many migrate.
Reasons for emigration
Quality of Life. Many want space and cannot afford that space
in the UK. The cost of a tiny terraced house in London
could win you a delightful detached house with a large garden in France.
Quite a few follow their children
who have previously taken advantage of
the ‘free’ movement in the EU. Others follow their children to Canada
or Australia. Many have gone to Ireland,
again for reasons of space. Others with
a zest for life seek new horizons.
Pensioners in Europe
(and the World)
All those who migrate to
continental Europe assume that having paid into the National Insurance System
for perhaps 40 years and also assuming that ‘freely untrammelled movement’
under EU regulations means what it says,
have joyously taken up a new life in their old age, carrying the culture
of Britain with them, just as do the British expatriates all over the world. They rejoice in the British successes at the Olympics. They cheer for Wiggo as he cycles through the
French countryside. They hold tea
parties to celebrate the Queen’s jubilee and watch with fascination the wedding
of Kate and Will.
Can you imagine people more
British and proud? These are people who know at first hand the ravages of
European wars (as I can relate from personal experience! Note my Biography link at
the end). These are people who see
themselves as global or European Citizens. Financial, Family and plain cultural ties glue
them to Britain. Great numbers are affected by financial
decisions of Parliament. But over all else
they are British and are ambassadors for Britain.
There is also a younger
generation of Britons who are in the world spreading British influence and
giving it all they have in entrepreneurial effort.
Britain’s insulting soggy cloth
Do all these Britons deserve the
soggy cloth that is thrown at them by the British Government?
The Government and the Government
before, and before that again, has told the expatriate pensioner that after 15
years abroad, his/her interest in Britain
has surely waned. A spokesman for Nick
Clegg has said:-
“Nick
appreciates that there are some British expatriates who have lived abroad for
over 15 years and who want to vote in British elections. However, as you may
know, Nick supports the existing legislation on this issue, including the
removal of the right to vote after 15 years of living abroad. If a Briton has
settled in another country, it is intuitive that they would know about and be
directly affected by the issues of that country. If they want to become
politically active, then they should register to vote in the country they
have settled in.” ‘In short – get stuffed!’
There is no word in the Thesaurus
which expresses the disdain and open mouthed astonishment that this paragraph engenders
in the pensioner within the EU. It is unbelievable that such sentiments can be
uttered by a politician who has served in Brussels,
has a Spanish wife and speaks Dutch like a native. Somehow the concept of Europe
as a comity of nations with threads of the citizens of its nations weaving
links across the continent, each binding the whole but tied to their home
National Government at the selvedge is lost on him.
The cloth of nations that is Europe
would be weakened if the thread that is Britain
were to be pulled loose. It could fall apart if certain sentiments are allowed
to run on untrammelled through the body politic of Britain.
The words of Clegg, Farrage, and the ranting of the Sun and the Mail are damaging the future role of Britain
in Europe. The
thread of Britain
in Europe needs reinforcement, not to be broken.
The heart of Europe.
Being at close proximity to the British
Isles, it is not surprising that the crisis is most acute for the
pensioners who live there in the EU/EEA and Switzerland.
We pensioners live in close
association and awareness with the United
Kingdom.
We are so fascinated with the political scene that we watch each
Wednesday PMQs, and at other times Dateline London, Question Time
and listen to Any Questions each Friday.
Most of us have no representation at all in Parliament. There is no-one sitting on those green
benches who has any real appreciation as to what it is like being a Briton in
Europe, subject to regulations derived from the EU with treaties signed by the
UK acting in our name but without any representation from us.
If a Referendum on the future of Britain
in Europe should ever come to be, the vast majority of
Britons who would be most profoundly affected by the outcome will have no say
whatsoever in the deliberation. This is
not democracy.
As things are – The Briton in Europe
can do no more than sit back and let a distant Parliament decide their
future. It is not surprising that our
minds hearken back 240 years to the time
of George III and the American Colonies when
the British Government dictated to those in a distant land. Today it is same syndrome. A blundering Government dictates what its distant unrepresented
citizens shall do.
Subjects which should be of concern
to the Select Committee on Pensions Policy.
All the above has as it central
theme the issue of Representation.
Firstly then--- . Representation
for the Briton Abroad at Westminster.
Remember - A Nation does not
exist without its citizens.
It is the totality of the
Citizens which is the Nation – whether they be resident in a small patch of
territory or not.
The
Government of a Nation should be through the goodwill of its citizens.
Large numbers of Britons Abroad
have left comments viewable at.
*********************************
But then there are other matters
- All are explored in the next link.
1. The taxation of Government Pensions - and
associated with this the curious muddles of The Double Taxation Treaties. These are a great mix-up and their impact is
quite unfairly imposed on the pensioner in Europe. Their impact is ridiculous. Some pensioners who live in France
pay more tax in consequence than should be the case.
2. The problem of use of the British financial
institutions. And the maintenance of a bank account in the UK,
for British Pensioners.
3. The interpretation of EU Law on Health and
Social Security Costs for the British Pensioner. The
British Pensioners in Europe are under EU law dependent on
the United Kingdom
for their Social Security. The phrase is ‘the UK
is the competent State' for their social security- therefore you, the Select
Committee, should ensure that all operates satisfactorily for the pensioner in Europe.
The current interpretation of these laws
runs counter to his/her interests.
2. The uniformity of payment of pensions to all
pensioners in the World.
Those who have moved to the
Commonwealth countries of Australia
and Canada and
SA and elsewhere are grieved that their State pensions are frozen. Yet is it
not astonishing that British pensions paid to those in Jamaica
(equally a Commonwealth country) or the USA,
are not frozen?
These items demonstrate to you
that yawning disparities exist in concerns for the elderly citizen abroad in
different and perplexing ways.
But the central focus is that we
are neither permanently nor adequately represented in the seat of our Nation’s
Government.
On October 23rd a debate will open in the Lords on the very
point of Representation of the Briton
Abroad. If an amendment fails on this then
shame will cloud once more the seat of Parliament as it did in 1776.
Please support now in the Lords,
and in any future debate in the Commons, the rights of all pensioners (and
thereby all Britons Abroad) to appropriate Representation for life in the Houses
of Parliament.
To. Select Committee
Ms.
Teresa Pearce MP
Labour Erith and Thamesmead
Postscript on November 17th 2012 - Only the chairperson replied to this mail - individually sent to each MP. Anne Begg misunderstood and thought it ONLY concerned the frozen State Pensions afflicting Pensioners in certain Commonwealth countries. NONE of them responded to a call for Representation for British Citizens.
The Debate in the House of Lords has been suspended because of inter party friction created by the Liberal Democrats.
